Telling Time to the Nearest 5 Minutes

Gerry is the type of guy who we have always put our complete faith in, which is why the NUMBEROCK CEO was sure that assigning him to teach you all about telling time to the nearest five minutes was the perfect move.

Without even being asked to do so, he explains the difference between AM and PM as a bonus. The guy is seriously almost flawless.

That being said, his chronic tardiness, although it doesn't effect NUMBEROCK's relationship with Gerry on a professional level, almost placed him in a lot of trouble with his best friend Lexi's parents. Thankfully, with a little help from his cooperative dog and a well-oiled backdoor window, he avoids getting both himself and Lexi grounded.

Telling Time Song Lyrics:

I want to tell you all about my Saturday,
but before I do, listen! I've just gotta say:
Sixty minutes make up every hour on the clock,
and every number is five minutes....tick-tock!
In twelve groups of five, sixty minutes make an hour.
Now let me tell you of the day that almost went sour.

I was headed to the park; I decided to walk.
As I left, I looked up and saw the time on a clock.
The short hand was after nine, then one-two-three-four-five...
five groups of five meant it was nine twenty-five.
If you can skip count by five until "times twelve,"
there will be no time that you cannot tell.

When the hour hand’s on a number and the minute hand's up,
we know it's "o'clock," whether breakfast or sup.
If the hour hand's right between two numbers, per se,
it's half past the hour, or six-thirty, that day.
With the long minute hand that represents the minutes gone by,
it's easy to tell time--and soon you'll see why.
Each number on the clock has five minutes in it.
If you skip-count by five, you'll tell the time lickety-split!

After an hour of playing, I took my sidewalk chalk...
thinking, "Wouldn't it be fun to draw the time on a clock?"
The hour hand was pointing just past eleven;
two groups of five was ten, so it was eleven ten.
I remembered I had to meet my friend, Lexi;
her house was far away, so I left in a hurry!

Here’s a tip: stretch out the hour hand.
Where on the clock does it land?
The last number it went by tells you the hour of time.

I got to Lexi's door and then rapped… “Knock! Knock!”
She answered the door and was pointing to the clock.
The hour hand just after twelve; the minute hand at the four;
four times five was twenty minutes; her foot tapped on the floor.
The time was twelve twenty, and she looked annoyed!
"You said you'd be coming no later than noon." "Oh, boy."

When the hour hand’s on a number and the minute hand's up,
we know it's "o'clock," whether breakfast or sup.
If the hour hand's right between two numbers, per se,
it's half past the hour, or ten-thirty, that day.
With the long minute hand that represents the minutes gone by,
it's easy to tell time--and soon you'll see why.
Each number on the clock has five minutes in it.
If you skip-count by five, you'll tell the time lickety-split!

We went to the movies, and I bought us two tickets.
The movie we went to see started right at six.
The hour hand was at six; the minute hand at the one.
She said, “It's six 'O' five, aren't we late?”
And I was like, “Um...!”
When we finally got our seats, she told me I was cute,
but I'd eaten beans for lunch and let out a loud toot.

AM starts at midnight and goes 'til noon (and noon is 12 PM.)
PM starts at noon and goes 'til midnight's moon (and midnight's 12 AM.)

On the way home we walked by the fishing dock.
We looked up and saw that it was now eight o’clock.
The minute hand pointed up; the hour hand, at the eight.
She said, "My curfew's quarter after 8. Oh, great!” (That's eight fifteen!)
So we went off in a hurry; we ran, we bounded...
to get Lexi home fast so she wouldn’t be grounded!

When the hour hand’s on a number and the minute hand's up,
we know it's "o'clock," whether breakfast or sup.
If the hour hand's right between two numbers, per se,
it's half past the hour, or three-thirty, that day.
With the long minute hand that represents the minutes gone by,
it's easy to tell time--and soon you'll see why.
Each number on the clock has five minutes in it.
If you skip-count by five, you'll tell the time lickety-split!

Learn More

This song targets TEKS and Common Core learning standards from both 1st Grade and 2nd Grade.  Look into the relevant standards here, or dig deeper into clocks and timepieces here.

If you are interested in getting ideas on how to plan a robust standards-aligned telling time lesson, we recommend checking out Instructure's recommendations for common core standards 1.MD.3, and 2.MD.7.  These pages help break down standard language, lay out the grade-appropriate level of rigor for each concept, and offer a variety of suggestions for activities (lesson seeds) that help students achieve their learning targets

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